e,
having by private vows last night in prayer to God Almighty cleared
my mind for the present of the thoughts of going to Deb. at Greenwich,
which I did long after. I passed by Guildhall, which is almost finished,
and saw a poor labourer carried by, I think, dead with a fall, as many
there are, I hear. So home to dinner, and then to the office a little,
and so to see my Lord Brouncker, who is a little ill of the gout; and
there Madam Williams told me that she heard that my wife was going into
France this year, which I did not deny, if I can get time, and I pray
God I may. But I wondering how she come to know it, she tells me a woman
that my wife spoke to for a maid, did tell her so, and that a lady that
desires to go thither would be glad to go in her company. Thence with my
wife abroad, with our coach, most pleasant weather; and to Hackney, and
into the marshes, where I never was before, and thence round about to
Old Ford and Bow; and coming through the latter home, there being some
young gentlewomen at a door, and I seeming not to know who they were,
my wife's jealousy told me presently that I knew well enough it was that
damned place where Deb. dwelt, which made me swear very angrily that it
was false, as it was, and I carried [her] back again to see the place,
and it proved not so, so I continued out of humour a good while at it,
she being willing to be friends, so I was by and by, saying no more of
it. So home, and there met with a letter from Captain Silas Taylor, and,
with it, his written copy of a play that he hath wrote, and intends to
have acted.--It is called "The Serenade, or Disappointment," which I
will read, not believing he can make any good of that kind. He did once
offer to show Harris it, but Harris told him that he would judge by one
Act whether it were good or no, which is indeed a foolish saying, and we
see them out themselves in the choice of a play after they have read the
whole, it being sometimes found not fit to act above three times; nay,
and some that have been refused at one house is found a good one at the
other. This made Taylor say he would not shew it him, but is angry,
and hath carried it to the other house, and he thinks it will be acted
there, though he tells me they are not yet agreed upon it. But I will
find time to get it read to me, and I did get my wife to begin a little
to-night in the garden, but not so much as I could make any judgment of
it. So home to supper and to bed.

8